it feels like a particular while, look you see, since i done some book "reviews" (or comments) here. time to read has evaded me somewhat, or so it seems. no matter, as i have only recently finished reading two (not three, or five) books (novels), time for some speculative commentary.
by chance, as in this certainly was not planned, it is two "old" books that i read. which is to say ones not published within the last couple of years. no, i had no idea before i picked either up. also, i kind of subscribe to a view that a dear friend once shared with me in respect of films. in his view, a movie was "old", as in "not new", only when you saw it. if one sat and watched a motion picture made fifty or so years ago that they had not seen before, then it was very much new to them.
anyway, a look at what i read.
Dark Side (or possibly Darkside) by Belinda Bauer turned out to be her second novel, and is a quasi-sequel to her (superb) first, Blacklands. it was rather good, very good indeed. perhaps not quite so good as Blacklands was, but certainly a better read than the recent one off her, Snap. meanwhile, The Gun Seller is off of Hugh Laurie, yes that one. rather like the Steve Martin novel i read a while ago, it's a breezy, whimsical thing, seemingly published more to indulge the stereotypical fragile ego of the author rather than for literary merits. as such, your enjoyment is limited or expanded by how much you care for the person what wrote it. generally speaking, Hugh Laurie is someone who i have on a list (not short but not extensive) of people that yeah, sure, if it came to it i would take a bullet for them, so i rather enjoyed it.
right, with that "just the basics" overview in place, do take note of, and pay attention to, a *** SPOILER WARNING *** being in place for the rest of this post. obviously i shall try not to have such in, but these things happen.
the provenance of my copy is unmistakably Tesco, for one of their "2 for £8" stickers beautifies the cover. however, i would not have purchased it as part of that deal, since i am still very much boycotting it, such is the underhand way they added £1 to the price. most likely i bought this as either their £3 or even £3.50 book of the week, or got it for £2.50 on condition that i spent a further 50p on The Sun, which will have gone directly into recycling.
plot? a small, sleepy village is somewhat disturbed by the death of an elderly resident, but then becomes rocked with it just so happens that the death turns out to be via murder. the local copper sort of tries to do his best to handle it, but soon the "big guns" of them there London coppers are called in, led by a particularly obnoxious and unpleasant type. whilst the obnoxious type seems more interested in making life hell for the local copper, and every one else for that matter, all of a sudden a few more dead by murder bodies start to appear......
make no mistake, the "twist" in this novel, as in who is responsible for the dead by murder bodies, is clinically obvious very early on. the pleasure in reading stems largely from watching it all unfold, but mostly (if that makes sense) from the superb written style. so, if you are looking for something complex that will have you trying to work it all out before any revelations, no, not here.
provenance of my copy? i had no idea at all that Hugh had gone written a novel in the 90s, not until in came up in one of them auction site searches i was doing to see if there were any comedy audio books or what have you featuring he and his (considerably) lesser partner. as the all in (as in postage included) for a (exceptionally well looked after and good quality) used copy was only very slightly north of £2, i figured surely, certainly, why not.
does The Gun Seller have any sort of discernible plot? yes, in part or if you like partially. the book has what might be called am unspecified fraction of a third of a quarter of a whim of an idea for a plot. essentially, and in many respects, it is a quasi semi parody of Glamorama, only written and published some two years prior to Bret Easton Ellis publishing that work. which, i like to think, showcases just how brilliant Hugh Laurie is. yes, i like him, and would forgive him all.
so, anyway, plot. our narrator (a former soldier somewhat down on his luck, constantly) is approached to do a murder. not only does he say no, but he elects to become an unsolicited protector of the proposed assassination target. from there he goes off on a whimsical adventure, involving but not limited to the arms trade, traitors, MI5, helicopters, the American diplomatic core, terrorism, sex, lawyers, guns, money, motorbikes and skiing.
basically, or in short, maybe best described quickly i suppose, or as an overview even, The Gun Seller features many allegorical, metaphorical, sharp sarcastic or self depreciating witty lines sellotaped together with a tenaciously sticky semi link. so, if you find the dazzling, talented, handsome, brilliant, all around genius of Hugh Laurie entertaining, you will very much enjoy this "novel". if you don't, then go away, you silly person, until such a time as you do.
my suspicions are, or i have every reason to suspect that, this particular episode of "reviews" shall have been of no practical use to anyone, anywhere. except maybe those who really, really like seeing the covers of novels presented in Commodore 64 mode. with that being the most probable case, thank you all the more for reading, then.
yes, indeed i am reading further novels, and i have every reason to be confident that comments on them will appear here as and when they are read.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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